HEALTH CARE AN D T HE A RTS

Humanities in medicine: preparing for practice

Daryl Ramai • Shoshanna Goldin

Published online: 4 October 2013

� The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com

As medical curriculum continues to experience a renaissance into the twenty first

century, there comes to birth a variety of seeded programmes in which there is no

concrete definition for what is termed humanities in medicine. However, while the

humanities continues to play an integral role in medicine, alongside the publication of

numerous articles published by medical journals, medical institutions have tailored

related programmes intended to support students’ learning about the social and

cultural contexts of health, illness, and medical care. Others have defined a broader

paradigm to include history, philosophy, literature, and arts. Though there is much

versatility in these programmes, the expected outcomes have been collectively agreed

upon. This article highlights three primary domains for why humanities should be

incorporated into medical circular and the training of ‘tomorrow’s doctors’.

Firstly, according to the Association for Medical Humanities, the study of

humanities contributes to the development of students’ and practitioners’ capacity to

listen, interpret, and communicate, while fostering an appreciation for the ethical

dimensions of practice [1]. This places more focus on the patient as a whole,

assessing both objective and subjective experiences of illness and health. For

example, by understanding the subjective nature of an individual’s behavioural

patterns, a doctor could find it beneficial to under-prescribe. The study of humanities

may assist in nurturing students in becoming more insightful, reflective, and

hopefully more influential in shaping the course of health care. This degree of

D. Ramai (&)

School of Medicine, St. George’s University, True Blue, Grenada, West Indies

email: dramai@sgu.edu

S. Goldin

Department of Interdisciplinary Studies - Global Health, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem,

NC 27109, USA

email: goldsn11@wfu.edu

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Perspect Med Educ (2013) 2:332–334

DOI 10.1007/s40037-013-0086-8

introspective thinking facilitates and encourages a willingness and capacity for

innovation surrounding larger public debates such as with the Universal Health Care

Act within the United States [2].

Secondly, humanities in medical education can foster an active professional

conscience in students. Faunce [3] has suggested that this component of student

education begins by encouraging the practical expression of foundational virtues

such as empathy, compassion, fairness, and loyalty to the relief of patients’

suffering. With the rigors of medical study and practice, students and doctors

sometimes lose sight of the patient, much less for these essential principles. It has

been well documented that students lose empathy during their medical education.

By incorporating and re-enforcing these values earlier and throughout medical

school, students will eventually adapt and grow into these ideals as part of their own

identity, making it an automatic and habitual response.

Thirdly, by creating a relationship between humanities and medicine, student

doctors and physicians are provided with an outlet to express themselves in a safe

and responsible manner. There is also evidence that suggests that humanities may

aid in the health of students and practitioners. While practitioners are entrusted with

the lives of others, they share in the burden of witnessing the toll of disease. The

intensity of the constant struggle to provide care and fight potential loss can build

barriers between patients and physicians. By incorporating humanities into

medicine, we allow physicians to direct and express their fears, stress, and hopes

in a secure arena. With such potential, medical schools are growing increasingly

aware of the importance of incorporating humanities into the curriculum. In 2011, a

medical humanities course was required for graduation at 52 % of American

medical schools [4].

In conclusion, the value of humanities in the medical profession is multi-faceted.

From the classrooms of medical school to the operating rooms of the hospital,

tomorrow’s doctors will be responsible for absorbing and providing medical

knowledge with attention and care. As the medical profession continues to include

humanities in its curriculum, it will have an opportunity to develop practical and

valuable skills such as critical and reflective thinking, a professional conscience, and

a healthy emotional outlet for the next generations of physicians.

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License

which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and

the source are credited.

References

1. Arnott R, Bolton G, Evans M, et al. Proposal for an academic Association for Medical Humanities.

J Med Ethics. 2001;27:104–5.

2. Huyler F. The woman in the mirror: humanities in medicine. Acad Med. 2001;88:918–20.

3. Faunce AT. Normative role of medical humanities. Lancet. 2003;362:1859.

4. Banaszek A. Medical humanities courses becoming prerequisites in many medical schools. CMAJ.

2011;183:441–2.

Humanities in medicine 333

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Author Biographies

Daryl Ramai is a medical student at St. George’s University. He is an avid researcher having a fervent

interest in education, global health, and medicine.

Shoshanna Goldin is a Global Health student at Wake Forest University with a keen interest in paediatric

epidemiology. She is president of Wake Forest University’s Hillel and co-founder of the Hunger Advisory

Board.

334 D. Ramai, S. Goldin

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